Estate planning
The importance of creating a comprehensive estate plan cannot be understated. A typical estate plan includes documents such as a will, a power of attorney, and an appointment of enduring guardian. In some cases people may also wish to prepare an advance care directive.
If you have business assets, a well prepared estate plan will also consider how those business assets will be treated upon death. For example, if you have a company or a discretionary trust, those entities will usually survive your death, and so the question needs to be considered – who will gain control of those assets?
Probate, letters of administration, and estate administration
The death of a loved one is often difficult for everyone. This can be exacerbated by having to navigate the legal complexities of managing a deceased estate and making distributions to beneficiaries.
If upon the death of a person there is no will, in most cases a grant of letters of administration will need to be obtained from the Supreme Court of NSW before anything can be distributed from the estate.
If there is a will, then an application will usually need to be made to the Supreme Court for a grant of probate.
Only once a grant of probate or a grant of letters of administration has been made by a court, can the estate be distributed by an executor of an estate. This process of distributing the estate assets and following the directions set out in the will is known as estate administration.
Your experts in wills, estate planning, probate, and estate administration – why choose us?
We are an award-winning law firm with offices in Balmain, Northbridge, Hornsby, and Tea Gardens in New South Wales.
Our firm’s history dates back to 1924, meaning that we have prepared and administered thousands of wills and estate plans. There isn’t much that we haven’t seen or done before.
We have a team of specialist wills and estates lawyers who have experience in everything from preparing estate plans, obtaining grants of probate or letters of administration, administering estates and distributing assets, and challenging or defending wills. Because of this, our lawyers are uniquely positioned to understand the full cycle of deceased estates, and can provide you with real practical guidance that is tailored to your individual circumstances.
Our specialist lawyers can prepare simple wills, powers of attorney, and appointments of enduring guardian, but also have deep expertise in complex estate planning including the preparation of testamentary trusts, superannuation proceeds trusts, and special disability trusts.
We regularly advise on the complexities associated with blended families and the complexities of having children from multiple relationships.
Our estate planning team is backed by our property and commercial law teams, and so we are uniquely positioned to provide advice on the division of property and business assets in the context of an estate plan.
Key services for the squares
> Estate planning – We can help you to prepare a will, power of attorney, and appointment of enduring guardian so that you have certainty on what happens if you pass away or are incapacitated but still alive.
> Letters of administration – We can help to obtain letters of administration in circumstances where the deceased did not leave a will.
> Probate – We can help you to apply for a grant of probate from the Supreme Court of NSW so that you can distribute the estate in accordance with the will.
> Family provision claims – Our lawyers have decades of experience both challenging wills and defending estates against claims made against estates.
> Business succession planning – Many of our clients are business owners and have complex setups such as corporations, trusts, and self managed superannuation funds. We are experts at cutting through the complexity and preparing comprehensive estate plans.
> Testamentary discretionary trusts – We can help to prepare complex wills and estate plans that are tax effective and which may provide asset protection benefits.
